Republican Congressman Mo Brooks earlier this month states that sea-level rise is caused by masses of rocks falling into the sea, not thermal expansion. How can a quick calculation and a sketch help to visualise this?

The recent cluster of hurricanes seem to count against the optimists’ hope that it’s an ill wind that blows no-one any good. Nonetheless, a hurricane hitting the USA five years ago helped an experimental film with a New York City backdrop go global.

Our local residents are doing a great job – 80% of the material that can be recycled is, but that meant that 20% wasn’t, and at a significant cost. The brief to Real World Visuals was to produce visuals and creative that would break through people’s apathy and get their attention - reengaging residents the cost benefits of recycling.

Air pollution is notably an issue that is gaining considerable attention around the world in all sectors of society - public policy, industry and health... We have been thinking about air pollution for some time: why it needs visualisation and how best to visualise it for all these audiences; for those dealing with the problems air pollution causes, those creating the problem and all of us seeking a solution. Happy National Clean Air day if you are in the UK... now take a deep breath....

Population Explorer is a new crowd-vis tool. Pick a number and Population Explorer will create a population of that size that matches the British population. For instance, in a population of 100 there will be 59 Christians and 25 people with no religion. Population Explorer can be used for any population, but more interestingly it can allow us to use population as a way to understand natural and financial resources.

When you can see yourself in statistics you engage with them on a wholly different level. That’s why at Real World Visuals we help people to see people in statistics about people. Sometimes we need reminding that it is not just numbers we are talking about and sometimes we need reminding to pay attention to the actual numbers rather than misguided intuition.

We have created a set of images that show the pollution from a cruise ship docked at the proposed terminal at Enderby Wharf, Greenwich, London. The images show the total volume of exhaust gas created each day, the volume of specific pollutants, and finally the volume of saturated air to the levels that are considered ‘safe’ to breathe.

Over the summer Real World Visuals brought a pile of rubbish to life in Bristol. Commissioned by the Bristol Waste Company, the two films show dramatic piles of waste and recycling material in Ashton Court Estate in Bristol.

In Santa’s world the air is just emptiness. It’s also limitless - after all you can see the stars through it. That’s how he and the reindeers can deliver gifts so effortlessly to the world’s children on a single night.

How do you stop lions eating livestock, and people from killing lions in retaliation? How do you improve the relationship between people and one of the worlds biggest carnivores? These are the challenges that have faced renowned lion researcher Alayne Oriol-Cotterill (Lion Landscapes) for the last thirteen years.

"Sir, Writing by Candlelight…" was the unimprovable title for a collection of essays by the radical historian Edward Thompson. It captured the aggrieved tone of a particular class of person firing off a letter to the press, during the three day week in the UK, perhaps, when Edward Heath's government confronted the coal miners, or the all out miners' strike a decade later. Don't these people realise how I and others are suffering here? Get them back to work. They have a duty to keep things going; but I (we) have no obligations to them.

Buying an electric car is good for the environment. But how good? Although there are no emissions from the exhaust pipe, the electricity has to be produced somewhere. And the carbon intensity of that electricity varies hugely from country to country depending on the fossil fuel, renewable and nuclear energy mix.

What connects international agreements, spray-on deodorants, minute organisms floating near the ocean surface and incoming solar radiation? The answer, if you’re still guessing, is the ozone layer. And ozone protection – one of the great environmental successes of the last 30 years – is a story that isn’t over yet.

Interactive visuals can enable the viewer to examine and interrogate data in depth and detail in ways that are immediate and intuitive. An apparently simple picture can be used to enable comparisons, relationships and insights with a flick of a cursor. The physical interaction can develop an engagement that can't be achieved with a static diagram, spreadsheet or other forms of database.

Energy use in buildings accounts for around 40% of global carbon emissions. Yet normally only buildings and energy managers - ‘engaged’people are aware or concerned about this energy use. But ‘non-engaged’ building users can help energy reduction, and enable substantial cost savings, by changing their own behaviours if they are more aware of the challenge.

We have helped at all levels from local government to the United Nations, with primary audiences ranging from young people in England and Wales to the Environment Ministers of countries in the Asia Pacific region. People in all communities can help find ways to live within environmental limits. We can help you to engage them.

Our work has been widely used in education around the world for schools and universities and also less formal settings such as museums and a zoo. Our images have also been used by Al Gore and the UK Government’s Chief Scientist, in public programmes and for specialists in automotive and other sectors.

Our work has been used in a variety of campaigns from cleaner air in New York City to showing historic global emissions, from low carbon farming to reaching young people on Twitter. Sometimes a striking image or animation can cut through the noise, expand an audience, engender a call to action or spark a new level of engagement and deepen understanding.

We can help you reach diverse audiences from employees to shareholders, in news, marketing and corporate reporting, from local firms to the Far East. We can tell your story about emissions, water, resource efficiency or other environmental or economic themes. We can also work with your creative agency where our science-based approach complements the creative flair of others.

Welcome to Real World Visuals - a new business with an excellent pedigree. Formed by the operational team of Carbon Visuals who pioneered ways of bringing carbon emissions data to new audiences, Real World Visuals will bring data to life for even more people.

Our senses, yours and mine, are well-tuned to the things that matter to us. Well, some of them at least. That rustle that suddenly startles in a nearby bush could be a sabre-toothed tiger hunting for supper. The minute departure from a natural smile betrayed in the fine musculature of someone’s face may mean they are no longer telling the truth.

At Carbon Visuals we have been thinking about air pollution: why it needs visualisation and how best to visualise it. The topic is finally getting the attention it deserves thanks in part to recent epidemiological studies that have revealed how deadly it is on a global scale. Air pollution is estimated to cause 7 million premature deaths per year; that’s about 20 thousand deaths a day.